Armageddon - Max Hastings [383]
“More than life itself”: Jack Curtis Goldman, Tales of a Combat Glider Pilot (privately published: 2000), p. 94.
“We were really happy”: Ibid., p. 97.
“those whom the MO thought”: Trinder MS, IWM, 85/8/1.
“These soldiers were thinking”: I should acknowledge a debt to Robert Kershaw’s excellent study of the German experience at Arnhem, It Never Snows in September (Crowood: 1990), for much eyewitness testimony and significant insights into the German tactical conduct of the battle.
“ ‘Idiots!’ we thought”: AI Wolfgang Dombrowski.
“Head for the sound of gunfire!”: AI Erwin Heck.
“They were so beaten”: Quoted Kershaw, op. cit., p. 105.
“Take that fucking”: AI John Killick.
“Peatling returned after an hour”: AI Bob Peatling.
“On Monday morning”: AI Jack Reynolds.
“In some ways”: AI John Killick.
“A tall, lithe figure”: Chester Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe (Collins: 1952), p. 470.
“At the time”: AI General Sir David Fraser.
“Captain Karl Godau”: AI Karl Godau.
“Jack Reynolds and his unit”: AI Jack Reynolds.
“There was a lot of toing”: AI Ron Graydon.
“In his lonely attic”: AI Bob Peatling.
“I was amazed by their stupidity”: James Gavin MS, “Beyond the Stars,” p. 91, Gavin Papers, USAMHI.
“Ridgway himself, that very”: Clay Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers (Dial Press: 1985), p. 341.
“A British tank commander”: Andy Cropper, Dad’s War (Anmas Publications: 1995).
“One of the worst sights”: Thorpe MS, op. cit., LHA.
“Very bitter fighting”: Turner-Cain Diary, op. cit., LHA.
“Intention: 12 KRRC”: Operation order in possession of Major W. F. Deedes.
“Keep up lads”: N. L. Francis MS, IWM, 88/58/1.
“Brigadier arrived in the p.m.”: Neave Diary, op. cit., 9.25.44, IWM.
“In the years to come”: Quoted The Brereton Diaries (William Morrow: 1946), p. 371.
“The soldiers who beat back”: Second Army MD, 12.8.44.
“Private Bob Peatling”: AI Bob Peatling.
“There was considerable”: Wilmot, op. cit., p. 519.
“it is arguable that Eisenhower”: Geoffrey Powell, The Devil’s Birthday (Buchan & Enright: 1984), p. 252.
“Sergeant Erwin Heck”: AI Erwin Heck.
“It was pretty dismaying”: AI John Killick.
“Lieutenant Jack Reynolds”: AI Jack Reynolds.
“When Corporal Denis Thomas”: AI Denis Thomas.
“Gavin of the U.S. 82nd”: James Gavin, On to Berlin (Viking: 1978), p. 232.
“Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris”: To the author, 8.4.77.
“The enemy has gained”: British Second Army Intelligence Report.
“the Germans would have”: Freddie de Guingand MS, “Arnhem—A Note for Posterity,” quoted Richardson, op. cit., p. 166.
CHAPTER THREE: THE FRONTIERS OF GERMANY
“The Allied drive lost”: Report of General Board of U.S. Forces in ETO, “Strategy of Campaign in North-West Europe 1944–45,” USAMHI.
“In one of the Moselle bridgeheads at Comy”: NA, RG492–332, box 11.
“We lost time because”: Ibid.
“Every day seems like the day”: Reimers Papers, USAMHI.
“Von Rundstedt’s deployments”: Wilmot, op. cit., p. 482.
“I took a dim view”: NA, RG492–332, box 11.
“Bradley argued that”: Hansen Papers, box 39a, USAMHI.
“We were still pretty good”: AI Max Wind.
“They’re coming out!”: NA, RG492–332, box 2.
“I think that the”: NA, RG492–332, box 6.
“If one gets hit”: Ibid.
“I wonder if it would”: AIs Field-Marshal Lord Bramall, General Sir David Fraser, Field-Marshal Lord Carver.
“Major-General Gerald Templer”: Norman Craig, The Broken Plume: A Platoon Commander’s Story (IWM: 1982), p. 33.
“A few guys carry your”: Captain Willie Knowlton, 12.31.44, quoted Dan Bied, Hell on Earth (privately published: 1979).
“The average man”: William E. DuPuy oral history interview, USAMHI.
“Too much cannot be said”: USAMHI, D769AZ, no. 15, c.4.
“The colonel’s the only real soldier”: Charles Felix, Crossing the Sauer (Burford Books: 2000), p. 138.
“An infantry assault”: William L. Devitt, Shavetail (Northstar Press: 2001), p. 125.
“The first advice”: AI “Red” Thompson.
“Lieutenant William Devitt”: Devitt, op. cit., p. 126.
“Nobody had time to”: AI “Red” Thompson.
“If the men can be”: NA, RG492–332, box 12, report of 4.11.45.
“A U.S. officer described an